Do you have any personal gaming "rules" you adhere to?

[Emperor Megas]

I was wondering if anyone else has any 'rules' that they adhere to when it comes to gaming. Not collecting rules mind you, but actual game playing rules. Thinking about it, I actually have quite a few that I don't think the average gamer would really care about, but I hold true too. For example:

• I never continue in arcade games - That is, games in the actual arcade (or emulators), or arcade style games on home consoles. Nothing about it appeals to me. I feel like it's cheating and/or admitting defeat. I always played games until I was good at them, and I wouldn't feel like I was getting my quarter's worth if I continued. There are some games that people are amazed that I can end on a single credit that I don't think it's a big deal, like Smash T.V., and the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (granted TMNT is far more difficult for me to end). I think that people just got into the habit of plunking in another quarter, so they never really honed their skills enough to end games on a single credit.
  
  
• I never play games in a series out of order - If I can help it, I never play games in a series without playing the previous installments. I don't necessarily have to complete them (I hated Silent Hill 4: The Room, for example, and never ended it before playing Origins), but I do feel a need to play them at least.
  
  Some exceptions are games that are either offshoots (like 'Tactics games), games that don't have a numeric series number in the title (Resident Evil: Code Veronica was the first RE I played for example). Or games that I'm introduced to really late in. If I enjoy them though, I go back and start at the earliest installment.
  
  
• I don't use game enhancing devices - Unless it's something that I'm using to disable a regional lock, or a memory manager, I don't use things like Game Sharks or Game Genies. Cheat codes that are built into the game are a different matter. I still don't use them during normal play through, either, but I've never use an external device to enhance or cheat at a game. It's just not my thing.
  
  
• I don't consult F.A.Q.s or strategy guides - Unless I've already completed a game, or I've practically shelved it because of some obscure dead end. Actually, that's not entirely true. If I'm not that into a game (by "that into" I mean that I'm not all that crazy about the game, it's just 'Meh'), but I've invested a little time in, and I get stuck, I'll consult an online F.A.Q., but otherwise, I'll just tough it out. I usually only consult an F.A.Q. for a game that I'm really into to see if I've hit a glitch, and that's what's preventing me from advancing. Or maybe I don't understand the controls for a certain area.
  
  
• I don't play games on the easy settings - Sometimes a game will suggest that you try an easier setting if you've dead 'x' amount of times (CAPCOM loves doing this); especially if it happens consecutively. Fuck_that_shit. That actually makes me want to play it through on a harder setting, in defiance. I know that the developers were trying to make it so that everyone could enjoy the game, but I can't help but take it as an insult, or rather, a challenge.
  
  
• I don't kill 'innocent' NPCs or animals in games - Now, there are a few exceptions to this rule as well. I AM guilty of killing rats and ravens in Resident Evil 4 and 5, but that might have more to do with being attacked by crows in earlier RE games. Then again, I shoot the fish too in 5, so maybe I'm more of a bastard than I realize. I suppose there's an animal hierarchy I subscribe to, and fish, rats, and birds are on the lower end of the pecking order, because I would never shoot the larger, caged animals, like the goats and nutria, in the labs in Resident Evil 5. And anyway, if the rats, ravens, and fish were so innocent, why would they drop stolen treasure, and grenades, when you killed them?
  
  I NEVER kill nonthreatening humans that I don't need to in games, though. It's just not something that appeals to me. Even cowering enemies, like the frightened Nazis that cringe in BloodRayne, or the Das Lof Gang members who 'give up' in Narc (the arcade game) I leave alone...unless I'm out of handcuffs.

What about you guys?